Sunday, May 8, 2011

Emma Sargent's Tombstone and More

This is the tombstone of Emmar Osenbaugh from the Iowa Veterans Home Cemetery in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Does it say "Emmar" or "Emma R"? Based upon other records on her, I'm inclined to think it was actually Emmar, but comments can be posted to this blog post for those who have other thoughts.

Emma was married six times as shown below:

Date

Groom (name transcribed on FamilySearch)

Bride (name transcribed on FamilySearch)

Location

18 March 1856

James W. Pollard

Emily Sargent

Appanoose County, Iowa

23 March 1871

Robert Ross

Emma Pollard

Lincoln, Lancaster, Nebraska

17 Feb 1874

Joseph H. Oades

Emma Ross

Lancaster County, Nebraska

11 March 1881

James W. Pollard

Emma Sargent Oads

Cromwell, Union, Iowa

14 February 1883

David Snavly

Emma Sargent Pollard

Cromwell, Union, Iowa

7 July 1896

John Osenbaugh

Emma Snavely

Chariton, Lucas, Iowa

We discussed formulating our search strategies for her divorce in issue 34 of Casefile Clues and we'll have further information on her as it is located.

As mentioned in the newsletter, it is important to keep in mind our goals when searching Emmar--and that is to locate information on her brother Ira Sargent, the actual ancestor.

Not looking at the actual married record document, but seeing the transcription 5 times of Emma and one of Emily, maybe there was a middle name she did not like to use, but family put the initial on the gravestone? Did she have a daughter with her last husband John Osenbaugh? That could have resulted in a second Emma Osenbaugh, which would possibly move them to using an initial on the gravestone? that's my 2 cents...Kat

MHD- I use blogger to create/maintain the blog. I simply took the table that was already in Microsoft Word (where I created it for the newsletter) and copied the table into my blog post. If that doesn't work for you, let me know and we'll see if we can figure it out.

If it werent' that it does list her husband as John Osenbaugh,I'd have said that her name was Emma Rosenbaugh based on your recent posts about consonants dropping off of names. And I would have guessed that they didn't have room for the "R" on the next line. Another thought: I've seen the female name Emmorette before.

Anonymous raises a good point--but on this stone, they would have had to do something similar with her husband's name which also appears on the stone. But I have seen names split in strange ways on tombstones before.

It also appears to me that the spacing between the "A" and "R" are the same as between other letters in the first name. That's apparent only at the bottom of the legs of both letters, and it's hard to be positive because of the black spot on the stone.

Going by the spacing, I would say it is EMMAR but had to chuckle when I read the comment by Carla C which reminded me of my grandmother who was born in WV. I sat down with her around 1970 and started recording names of her family and almost every name that actually ended with an "a' suddenly ended with an "r" when she said them. Her cousin Cora was Corie. Corda became Cordie. Alpha became Alfie. When she gave me Alfie's name, I wrote it the way it sounded but when she saw it, she actually got mad that I had spelled it wrong so I had her spell it for me and she gave me Alpha. I explained to her that I could only go by the way she gave it to me and she did call him Alfie ~ lol

I think it looks like "Emmar" and agree that it could be a dialectical issue. My great-grandmother's name was "Morning" and on her tombstone it is spelled "Marning"--perhaps just a misspelling, or possibly due to the regional Texas twang. (Other spelling variants have included "Mourning" and "Mournery".)

I would say the R is an initial. It could very well be a pronunciation issue. Several of the federal censuses show her as Emmar and others as Emma. One individual did submit a correction for the 1895 Iowa census to change it from Emmar Snavely to Emma.

Get Casefile Clues Blog Updates

About Michael

Michael John Neill has actively researched his ancestry for nearly thirty years. An experienced courthouse, archives, library, and online researcher, Michael's children have ancestors in fifteen states and eight European countries. Michael lectures nationally on a wide variety of genealogy topics and has presented day-long seminars on family history research for over fifteen years. He has a master's degree in mathematics and has been an educator for over twenty years.

About Casefile Clues

Casefile Clues is Michael John Neill's weekly how to genealogy newsletter for experienced family history researchers. Casefile Clues focuses on methods, sources, and analysis, while including citations in a clear, easy-to-follow and understand format.
Our concentration is on actual genealogy--theoretically correct, but hands-on with practical advice.
We explain the process and method clearly--and we include what did not work as well as what did.
Subscribe and increase your research skills today!